Social network systems typically provide mechanisms (referred to as channels, e.g., posts, messages, emails, invitations, notifications, newsfeeds, etc.) for members to communicate, directly and indirectly, with one another. End-user devices can access a social network system via dedicated applications or web browsers. For example, a social network system can include client-side applications (e.g., a social network application (“app”) executing on a smart phone or other mobile computing device) that receive and respond to user interactions with the social network system. As another example, a social network system may generate dynamic social network website(s) for web browsers to access.
A user of a social network system may transmit or receive communications with respect to a fixed set of other users (e.g., posts on a “wall” to all “friends” of the user). In some cases, a user may manually construct a list or audience for receiving specific communications (e.g., by adding specific user identifiers to a recipient list for certain messages). However, the lack of simplicity and flexibility of efficient control over the selection of communication recipients (or sources) may discourage users from fully engaging in many social network communications.
The figures depict various embodiments of this disclosure for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of embodiments described herein.